Friday, 19 December 2014

DISCLAIMER - by no means am I a pro-painter. I am way to impatient to spend the time improving my skills. Due to not being able to stand running my minis on a table unpainted I am usually pretty good at finding a quick, functional and reasonable way of getting minis to a playable standard - FAST.

Here is how I smashed out 1000 points of US Army (about 45 men) for Bolt Action in 1 day and 2 night sessions (16 hours total).

Please excuse the phone pictures (I will make sure that I make an effort to give clearer pictures next time).

Step 1: Assemble, super glue sand to base and then once glue dry - undercoat/prime with Tan spray (I used a Tamiya brand paint form the local toy store).

Step 2: Brown Pants

Step 3: Green Helmet

Step 4: Light Green webbing/packs etc

Step 5: Skin

Step 6: Dark Brown rifle

Step 7: Metal working parts

Step 8: Dark Brown Base

Step 9: Liberal all over wash (inc base). Dont forget to use a clean brush to remove any major excess if it occurs.

Step 10: Drybrush base and any tan parts of uniform that are too dark.

Thats it!!! I worked on a squad at a time as to not get too bored. I have about 3 more squads to finish for my second Platoon. Once done the bases will get some add flare in the way of leaves, flocks and grass tufts.

I hope this gets some of you motivated - you too can help end the grey plastic plague :)

Sunday, 7 December 2014

Hi guys,I played a game this weekend with my Mechanicum Myrmidon Cult, THE SONS OF KOURETES against an Emperors Children army mixed in with Slaanesh Daemons.I've done up a narrative battle report here!Here's some taster pics:

It was a great game, and exactly the kind of awesome battle I've dreamed about since V2!

Friday, 21 November 2014

Having seen Ty's recent forays into Bolt Action I couldn't help but get involved. Being a history teacher in training I'm surprised I haven't found myself delving into Bolt Action previously. I guess all it takes is watching a mate have a blast and then feeling the urge to outdo them.

I've started off relatively simply with the Assault on Normandy starter set, which is an amazing deal. The rulebook, 40 miniatures, dice AND a little bit of terrain all for just over $100. Warlord games is also currently having a Christmas sale so it's the perfect time to get on board this awesome game system. I also picked up a Panzer IV and Sherman M4A3 (I think...). Cause tanks are rad.

After some quick research and a lot of help from the amazing community that surrounds Bolt Action (which can be found easily on Facebook) it became clear that one of the best things about collecting WW2 miniatures is that there are so many options out there. Black Tree Designs, Artizan Designs and Rubicon Models (amazing plastic tanks) are a really good start to look into.

I've got a few games under my belt already with some people I've met through the awesome FB group who were happy to lend me an army to start rolling some dice. Simple to master but with a shed tonne of depth, the tabletop game is lots of fun to play. Above are some British that I actually managed to get a draw with, even after artillerying (it's now a word) the hell out of my own troops. When playing with some American troops I also managed to strafe my own line with a couple of fighter planes. I found out later that this was historically pretty accurate, so I'm ok with it.

I've started by painting up some Germans from the starter set to a tabletop standard I'm happy with for my first try. Great models to put together, with a bunch of options for poses and customisation. I really love working with historical miniatures (I'm usually a 40k man) as everything from the rifle they carry to the way their webbing is painted takes that extra bit of thought and research. I spent hours researching and cross checking a colour scheme before putting paint to models. The potential to theme armies to theater, time frame and even individual units within WW2 is a big draw for me and the possibilities are endless.

I'm going to have a crack at the Panzer IV next, which means breaking out the airbrush for the first time in a while. Turns out that from about 1942 onward German tanks were generally variants of yellow (base) with brown and green camouflage, on the Western European front at least. Wooo! History!

Thursday, 2 October 2014

The AGIF lads are nice enough that they even have a fully painted army on stand by to teach newcomers all about 30k.

The Death Guard army before you was an army put together by Macca a few years ago while putting himself through a heap of new techniques and practice. This army has recently been relocated to Townsville and is looked after by Mick and Mitch.

He will disagree - but we still think these look pretty bloody good.

Have a look and you be the judge!

Go and check out some of Macca's more recent projects and tutorials on the AGIF blog.